Not By Works

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

Lucy-Pevensie

Senior Member
Dec 20, 2017
9,385
5,724
113
Correct. I'm not saying works save us. Only faith in the forgiveness of God saves. Our works show if we possess that forgiveness by faith.
So faith in forgiveness saves us but we don't get the forgiveness without works?
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
So faith in forgiveness saves us but we don't get the forgiveness without works?
he is so focused on works, I doubt he knows what true faith really is.. He is too self focused. (That is the error of a works based religion), it Mocks Jesus and his promises
 
U

UnderGrace

Guest
However in your plan of salvation, forgiveness runs out, God has a limit.

That is what you teach right?


Correct. I'm not saying works save us. Only faith in the forgiveness of God saves. Our works show if we possess that forgiveness by faith.

“For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.”
50And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”-Luke 7:47-48,50
 
Dec 22, 2017
278
3
0
Romans 3:23-31 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because IN HIS FORBEARANCE HE HAD LEFT THE SINS COMMITTED BEFOREHAND UNPUNISHED— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

Romans 5:13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But SIN IS NOT TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT when there is no law.
 
Dec 22, 2017
278
3
0
New International Version 1984 Mark 7:6-13 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
 
Dec 22, 2017
278
3
0
New International Version 1984 2 Timothy 4:1-5 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
 
Jan 25, 2018
673
10
0
You suggest or think or know I am in ministry in my church, the church which you lambast in your first quote above.
Then you say, I did not mean to suggest you personally were in any role.
Grace to you Bill,

I apologize for being too quick. Depending on how the reader feels, the same words have
different meanings.

I was saying that by denying the work Christ has done in us, we appear different than we
actual are, which denies the whole reason for being lights in a dark world.

I know with certainty, this light can never fail or dimmed.

Grace and peace to you, no matter what others may claim I mean, ask the Lord.
 

Endoscopy

Senior Member
Oct 13, 2017
4,028
400
83
That you can continue in sin because grace has abounded through Christ ('once saved always saved' being the reason why).

You CAN'T do that because that would be showing you to not be born again according to John:

"No one who is born of God will continue to sin"-1 John 3:9

Born again people are growing out and away from sin, not living and continuing in it unchanged. Their changing life showing that they have the grace of God in salvation. The unchanged life shows one to NOT have the grace of God in salvation.

So works do matter. If you have dead faith when Jesus comes back you don't have the faith that saves that you think you do. You will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Reconcile your view with Paul in the following scripture.

Romans 7 NIV

14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
 
R

Ralph-

Guest
However in your plan of salvation, forgiveness runs out, God has a limit.

That is what you teach right?
No, God's forgiveness does not run out. Your faith in his forgiveness is what can potentially run out.

Even with God's enormous power to help us to trust in the blood we still have the choice if we want to continue in the forgiveness of God. But I do believe there is a point of no return at which a believer's faith grows to the point where they can not be persuaded to walk away from faith in the blood.
 
Dec 22, 2017
278
3
0
New International Version 1984 Ephesians 2:11-22 One in Christ Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
 
Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,401
113
No, God's forgiveness does not run out. Your faith in his forgiveness is what can potentially run out.

.
Seeing how JESUS begins and finishes our faith....the above equates to one of the following...

a. Your Jesus is an inept liar not found in the bible.
b. Your Jesus is an inept weakling that cannot complete his work or fulfill his word.
c. Your wrong in your assessment
d. ALL three of the above
 

Locutus

Senior Member
Feb 10, 2017
5,928
685
113
4 AM in the morning in the UK and fasthideous Peter still at it...
 
Jan 25, 2018
673
10
0
In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.
John 1:4-6


When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
John 8:12

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Matthew 5:8

Thank you Lord for bringing the Light of life into our hearts to bring
Praise to your name and make us your people.

We are not here to please man, or their judgments or aspirations but
to testify to your work in our lives to usher in eternity in the mortal world.

Thankyou dear Lord that I do not need to understand how and why, but
Just follow the path your light leads us into.

Grace and peace to you in Christ Jesus our saviour
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
If you want him to do that he will do that. You can count on it.
Thats not what the Bible says, It says he will do it to whoever are born of him. You need to stop denying you teach works, when it is obvious to everyone that is what you teach. You are holding God captive and mocking him, destroying his promises and calling him a liar.
 
U

UnderGrace

Guest
It would seem you have changed your theology now...the person living in sin can still be forgiven..perhaps even more than once?



No, God's forgiveness does not run out. Your faith in his forgiveness is what can potentially run out.

Even with God's enormous power to help us to trust in the blood we still have the choice if we want to continue in the forgiveness of God. But I do believe there is a point of no return at which a believer's faith grows to the point where they can not be persuaded to walk away from faith in the blood.
 

stillness

Senior Member
Jan 28, 2013
1,257
211
63
69
Walk trough the valley
So faith in forgiveness saves us but we don't get the forgiveness without works?
The reason I like your response is: We get forgiveness without work but we don't grow up without working out our renewal in worship admiration of God. Once we have put off the old man and have put on the new man its no longer work and we enter into rest, when our whole heart is involved in God. And if you manage to put off your old clothes and put on God's clothes, without work, good on you you had an easy life and have not suffered much and hopefully you can love much just the same.

"But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. And he that overcomes, and keeps my works (will) unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations."

And if you had to work very hard to keep the will of God to the end and suffered much, good on you God doesn't have our trouble with language. As we walk in Love our spirit is joined with God's spirit and we communicate as one.

Its obvious that those under the law don't attain because of pride of achievement:
"If any man thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself."
The trouble is not work or no work: Why do you think James had to address the Church?
There are those deceived on both sides of the fence, or is it that these are sitting on the fence as lukewarm.
"The end of the commandment is Love out of a pure heart and sincere Faith and a clean conscience."
Whether you have to work or not to get there may depend on how much money you have:
For those of you who don't parable: money is Faith. But doesn't mater how much money you have if you don't invest in Love. "Faith works by Love." During the first year of marriage it's not considered work as Love is its own reward. I believe God made it possible for us to remain in this state of Grace by the Holy Spirit, but if you have to work like an eagle exerting all your strength to reach the updraft before you can soar in God effortlessly (in prayer and fellowship of the Spirit) keep that between you and God, as talking about it only causes you to lose your reward, lose direction of the updraft and having to start over again to work out renewal. Also if you find the Lord leading you down from the mountaintop to work with Him in the valley, ("if we suffer with Him, we shall rule with Him.") don't take things in your hands again to think of it as work and imposing this on others, again your losing your reward.
"Count it all joy, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the Will (work) of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." You will soar again effortlessly when your Joy is renewed.
 
Last edited: